Posted in Bootleg Theater on October 22nd, 2021 by JJ Koczan
Starting to feel like I’ve been writing about Caustic Casanova a lot lately. The D.C./Maryland four-piece have put out two live albums this year — so far; you never know when another might show up — they had another video for “Memory King” from 2019’s God How I Envy the Deaf (review here), earlier this week they announced a string of we’re-back-out-on-the-road-in-the-plague-era tour dates that you can see below, and now they’ve got this Hourglass Session clip for “Filth Castle/Poor Wigs” that worked out to be kind of too cool not to post.
So hey, here’s some more about Caustic Casanova. They’re still righteous. They’ve apparently grown out their hair since the last time they took a promo picture. This video shows them at the Sky Stage in Frederick, Maryland, which seems to have gotten hold of your old high school bleachers and put them to frickin’ awesome use. “Filth Castle” has featured on both the aforementioned live outings the band issued in 2021, which can be streamed near the bottom of this post, and came from the 2019 album. Here, as on the new EPPPCOT (Experimental Protoprog Psych Punk Concert on Tour), “Filth Castle” is paired with the slower ending “Poor Wigs” and it works to an effect I can only call delightful. You’ll also find the band surrounded by colorful, animated birds, because we live in an age of wonders after all and sometimes things in the universe are okay and it doesn’t always have to hurt all the time so there.
That’s t it. They have a bit about this version of the song that came through in a Bandcamp update email, and again, their tour dates are down below for those feeling adventurous. Anytime you guys want to stop through Tabor Firehouse in scenic Morris Plains, NJ, let me know and I’ll book out the room. Cheers.
Hey, we just dropped a new LIVE music video! It was filmed at a truly unique outdoor art space / concert venue in Frederick, MD, name of Sky Stage. It was filmed and edited by Tyler Scheerschmidt, recorded, mixed and mastered by Dillon Douglasson, and animated by Josh Cromwell. Together these guys make up Hourglass Sessions, a group making amazing live music videos and doing super cool livestreams out of Richmond, VA. Check them out and subscribe to their channel, it’s one of the most unique music series we’ve come across, and we’re thrilled to be a part of it.
This is the first professionally recorded version of “Filth Castle” we’ve done as a four piece – you’ll notice some extra harmonies and other sonic details that make it different from the studio version, as well as a entirely different guitar solo section featuring Jake and Andrew. PLUS the doomy outro is a separate song – “Poor Wigs” – which we’ve been doing on tour as long as Jake’s been in the band. Watch the full video at the link below, please leave a comment, and, again, subscribe to the Hourglass Sessions channel!
Caustic Casanova on tour: Thu, NOV 11 Mr Small’s Theatre Millvale, PA Fri, NOV 12 Parts & Labor Bar Melvindale, MI Sat, NOV 13 Spacebar Columbus, OH Mon, NOV 15 Beat Kitchen Chicago, IL Fri, NOV 19 Buzzbin Art & Music Shop Canton, OH Sat, NOV 20 Hideaway Johnson City, TN Mon, NOV 22 Highlands Tap Room Louisville, KY Fri, DEC 3 Pie Shop Washington, DC Wed, DEC 8 Reggie’s 42nd Street Tavern Wilmington, NC Thu, DEC 9 Tua Lingua Art Studio North Charleston, SC Fri, DEC 10 529 Atlanta, GA Sat, DEC 11 Fleetwood’s Asheville, NC Sun, DEC 12 Upside Down Plaza Birmingham, AL Tue, DEC 14 Rain Dogs Jacksonville, FL Thu, DEC 16 Nice Guys Pizza and Beer Cape Coral, FL Fri, DEC 17 Hooch and Hive Tampa, FL Sat, DEC 18 Soundbar Orlando Orlando, FL Sun, DEC 19 The Wooly Gainesville, FL
Caustic Casanova are: Francis Beringer – Bass/Vocals Stefanie Zaenker – Drums/Vocals Andrew Yonki – Guitar Jake Kimberley – Guitar
Posted in Whathaveyou on October 18th, 2021 by JJ Koczan
Whenever the last Bandcamp Friday was, I placed an order for the new Caustic Casanova tape. It’s a live release called EPPPCOT that they did a limited run for and it came with handmade art, a nice handwritten note — yeah, I appreciate and absolutely keep that kind of thing, always — and a coozie and stickers and whatnot. It also came with a SECRET THING that I can’t talk about but if you get the tape you’ll find out about it too and then we can talk about it together and pretend we’re the cool kids in the SECRET THING Club and I think if humanity is honest with itself that’s all people have ever aspired to be. The post-industrial capitalist ideal, somehow given charm because, well, it’s Caustic Casanova. Needless to say, there is no level on which I regret the purchase.
EPPPCOT is the second live release Caustic Casanova have put out this year, and if that makes you think to yourself, golly, this band must really miss touring, I think that yes that is precisely the case. Fortunately they’ve got a round of shows getting back into the swing of things show-wise slated to begin next month, heading off into the wild whatever-color yonder with their underrated selves. And a new album in Summer 2022? Please and thank you. Glad they’ll still be working with Magnetic Eye, too.
Tour dates follow, as per social media:
Pleased as punch to announce our fall tour dates, our first tour in two years! Can’t wait to get out there – hope to see y’all.
We have a new album coming next summer on Magnetic Eye Records so we’ll be debuting some new material from that as well as all the hits and some surprises.
Thu, NOV 11 Mr Small’s Theatre Millvale, PA Fri, NOV 12 Parts & Labor Bar Melvindale, MI Sat, NOV 13 Spacebar Columbus, OH Mon, NOV 15 Beat Kitchen Chicago, IL Fri, NOV 19 Buzzbin Art & Music Shop Canton, OH Sat, NOV 20 Hideaway Johnson City, TN Mon, NOV 22 Highlands Tap Room Louisville, KY Fri, DEC 3 Pie Shop Washington, DC Wed, DEC 8 Reggie’s 42nd Street Tavern Wilmington, NC Thu, DEC 9 Tua Lingua Art Studio North Charleston, SC Fri, DEC 10 529 Atlanta, GA Sat, DEC 11 Fleetwood’s Asheville, NC Sun, DEC 12 Upside Down Plaza Birmingham, AL Tue, DEC 14 Rain Dogs Jacksonville, FL Thu, DEC 16 Nice Guys Pizza and Beer Cape Coral, FL Fri, DEC 17 Hooch and Hive Tampa, FL Sat, DEC 18 Soundbar Orlando Orlando, FL Sun, DEC 19 The Wooly Gainesville, FL
Caustic Casanova are: Francis Beringer – Bass/Vocals Stefanie Zaenker – Drums/Vocals Andrew Yonki – Guitar Jake Kimberley – Guitar
Posted in Whathaveyou on September 9th, 2021 by JJ Koczan
Wasn’t I just posting about Caustic Casanova like two days ago? In fact, I was, but that was my own fault for being late on the arrival of their “Memory King” video. This news? Current! How about that?
EPPPCOT reportedly stands for Experimental Protoprog Psych Punk Concert on Tour, which is enough to make one thankful for the acronym. All the more appropriate that the second Caustic Casanova self-released live album of 2021 was tracked in Orlando, Florida, since, you know, Disney and all that. If you, like me, have been known to enjoy a soundboard bootleg from time to time, dive into “Boxed and Crated/Show Some Shame” knowing that’s what you’re getting in mixed and mastered form. They were playing as a trio at the time. They’re a four-piece now. As they tell it they’d had a hard few days, but the songs (united as one track here) still sound right on. Maybe the rest of the thing is a mess. I haven’t heard it, but I’m thinking I might preorder a tape.
It’s out later this month, as per the below info, which I nabbed right off their Bandcamp page, thanks to the cut-and-paste-readiness of the internet at large.
Dig:
EPPPCOT (Experimental Protoprog Psych Punk Concert On Tour) by Caustic Casanova
On November 18th, 2019, Caustic Casanova played at about 1 am at Will’s Pub in Orlando, FL on a Monday night. The band was on close to 24 hours of no sleep. Stefanie had experienced a personal family tragedy in the past day. It was a rough night, but we endured. This is a document of that.
There are two sides to touring, and they are beautifully captured on a cassette release that will feature EPPPCOT – Experimental Prototype Psych Punk Concert On Tour (named lovingly after an Orlando landmark) on one side, and Lïve Läugh Löve Malört (named lovingly after a Chicagoland alcohol benchmark) on the other. In Chicago, in 2018, we played on a Saturday night to a packed house of drunk metalheads. In Orlando in 2019, we played on a Monday night, nearly hallucinating from lack of sleep, to the few people who dared to stick around into the early morning hours. We rocked both nights with everything we had. The 2018 Chicago gig featured the classic Yonki-Zaenker-Beringer lineup, and the Orlando 2019 show featured the (at the time) very new Kimberley-Zaenker-Beringer lineup, yet another way these two shows exemplify two sides of the live CC experience. Hopefully the next live CC set can show off the four piece lineup in all its glory.
EPPPCOT was recorded live by Kevin Tuck at Will’s Pub, Orlando, FL on November 18, 2019, and was mixed by Kevin Tuck. It was mastered by Dan Coutant at Sun Room Audio. Artwork by Selena Benally.
Releases September 29, 2021.
Tracklisting: 1. Wicked World (Black Sabbath Cover) 2. Boxed and Crated / Show Some Shame 3. Donut and the Golden Hen 4. Filth Castle / Poor Wigs
Recorded Live Off The Board by Kevin Tuck at Will’s Pub, November 18th, 2019, Orlando, FL Mixed by Kevin Tuck Mastered by Dan Coutant
Posted in Bootleg Theater on September 7th, 2021 by JJ Koczan
Capitol City heavy rockers Caustic Casanova released God How I Envy the Deaf (review here) the better part of two years ago. If you were wondering — or, I guess, if you weren’t — it’s still awesome. The underrated D.C. outfit would have probably informed you of that in-person while playing on any number of tours throughout the last year and a half supporting the LP, but, well, you know. I’m pretty sure you were aware of what was happening during that time, what continues to be happening, and what will apparently be happening for the foreseeable future. To be honest, I’d like to take the rest of this post off from thinking or writing about it.
Perhaps in that regard, Caustic Casanova‘s new clip for “Memory King” can serve as a somewhat ironic accompaniment to a few minutes of willful forgetting. I’ve been trying to write about it for the last few days and have been caught up in other whatnot that doesn’t need detailing here, so the initial drifting guitar line, underlying rhythmic solidity and the overarching groove that emerges therefrom are only welcome presences in my brain, escapism or not. And if you’re feeling bad from taking a couple minutes off from fretting unproductively about the state of the world, don’t. The clip has a relevant censorship message, if transposed onto pigeons. And fair enough.
You ever see Caustic Casanova? It’s kind of hard to convey how much their material manages to be theirs while ultimately staying in familiar terrain. As a group, they have a presence that’s not quite like anybody else making heavy rock, and they’ve done it well enough and long enough at this point that they just get on stage, deliver, and are done. In a way, it’s no-frills, almost punk rock, and then they might sludge out and embarrass any number of surrounding acts stacking speaker cabinets for a showcase of tone-worship. I’ve been fortunate enough to catch them a couple times now. All they do is impress. They put out a live EP this year. It’s not quite the same, of course, but it ain’t nothing. And they made fridge magnets, which is aces in my book.
Okay, back to the slog I go. You enjoy this:
Caustic Casanova, “Memory King” official video
CAUSTIC CASANOVA comment: “Jase Harper, with whom we’ve collaborated for well over a decade, and I worked on the concept and story for this video for months and months, before his work schedule and the pandemic nearly put an end to the whole project”, states singer and bass player Francis Beringer. “We pressed on, thankfully, and Jase’s tireless work finally paid off. We now present the complete, beautiful, insane music video for “Memory King”, off our 2019 album God How I Envy The Deaf. Within the dystopian bird universe depicted in that album’s art, the story revolves around a pigeon drummer who has her livelihood taken away because she will not agree to produce only government approved music. She signs up for an extremely dangerous space mission, one of the few available jobs for former artists who refuse to comply with the regime’s orders. In her cosmic journey, within her own mind and out in deep space, she encounters characters from throughout the Caustic Casanova artistic universe, including the legendary space squid and the banana cow. As for the thrilling conclusion of self-sacrifice, well, you’ll just have to watch the video.”
[Click play above to stream Borracho’s Pound of Flesh in its entirety. Album is out Friday, Aug. 6 on Kozmik Artifactz.]
Though the band has been around longer, this year is a decade since the first Borracho full-length, Splitting Sky (review here), came out from D.C. to lobby listeners in favor of their particular take on heavy roll, marked out by a distinctive feel of riding their own grooves and doing so on a conveyance of dense-packed fuzz tone. Pound of Flesh follows a collaborative 2020 single with vocalist Jake Starr, formerly of Adam West — of which Borracho drummer Mario Trubiano was also a member — and is comprised of material and recordings dating back to late 2019, recorded and mixed as ever by Frank “The Punisher” Marchand (Foghound, Iron Man, Life Beyond, so many others) across three sessions then and across subsequent months (Tony Reed mastered). Trubiano, guitarist/vocalist Steve Fisher — who also adds keys on three of the nine tracks — and bassist/backing vocalist Tim Martin (who also painted the album’s cover) work within a style and elements that should be well familiar to their established audience base.
They’ve never been a band to radically shift approach from one outing to the next, but it’s also been half a decade since 2016’s Atacama(review here) — the band also celebrated their 10-year anniversary with the collection Riffography (review here) in 2017 — and a significant half-decade at that, and that time has wrought some shifts in their approach, whether it’s that flourish of keyboard/organ sounds introduced on opener “Holy Roller” and spread throughout “Caravan” and the 11-minute pre-outro finale “Burn it Down,” wherein Floyd-via-YOB contemplative guitar also pervades early with proggy melancholy as a precedent to the combination of aggression, breadth and thematic summary that follows, or the use of transitional samples like those between “Judgement Day” and “Dirty Money,” or those that conclude the album in “Foaming at the Mouth,” some spoken word in the second half of “Caravan,” or even just the blatant focus on social and political issues, which one imagines have been nigh on impossible to avoid in the US capitol throughout the years since Atacama, since they’ve certainly been impossible to avoid everywhere else.
Borracho tackle the subject with characteristic boldness and bruiser riffing across three vinyl sides — side D of the 2LP is an etching — as Fisher‘s vocals working with a well-established burl that’s been their hallmark since he took over those duties on 2013’s Oculus (review here). His easing into more of a frontman role is a big part of the narrative arc of the band’s career to-date, and the launch of Pound of Flesh in “Holy Roller” and the more melodically fluid “It Came From the Sky” (premiered here) is crucial in marking out the ground that the rest of what follows will cover; strong hooks, weighted groove, and the by-now-a-given chemistry in the performance of the trio as a whole that underscores the more complex structure presented in “Caravan.” It’s hard to think of a band who’ve spent the past 14 years actively working to foster a lack of pretense as being atmospheric, but Borracho are that on “Caravan,” and certainly too on the acoustic “Dreamer” that follows, serving as an interlude before “Judgement Day,” “Dirty Money” and “Year of the Swine” push further into the heart of the matter in their construction and lyrical schematic, which isn’t so much partisan as roundly disgusted.
Following the open keys, shouts, and fuzzy careening that marks the peak of “Caravan” and the stretch of Eastern-tinged noodling and percussion that follows to end the song, and the plucked acoustic strings of “Dreamer,” “Judgement Day” slams in to crack the hypnosis in half, with a riff and rhythm that is definitively Borrachoan, and a hook less immediate than “Holy Roller” or “It Came From the Sky,” but still a notable presence, and a surge of momentum that “Dirty Money” continues at a faster tempo, repeating the pattern of the opening duo but, instead of turning right away into the longer reach that showed itself on “Caravan,” the path twists and brings about “Year of the Swine,” which is willfully lumbering and gnashing in its frustration, bolstered in that regard by a guest solo from Scott “Wino” Weinrich.
It is the peak the three-piece hit before they hit before that frustration boils into what emerges on “Burn it Down,” the tension in the beginning building over the first 3:44 of the song’s total 11:24 in order to set up the first verse, which only ups the stakes further en route to gang-style shouts of “rise up!” and “tear down!” offsetting the chorus lines “Rise up and fight” and “Burn it to the ground.”
Well, okay. One has to note, of course, that “Burn it Down” was written and recorded prior to this past Jan. 6, when an attempted putsch in Washington, D.C., tried in its way to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. I’ll add as well that I haven’t had the benefit of a lyric sheet, but it’s hard not to place “Burn it Down” in that context. And no, I don’t think Fisher is calling for insurrection — or at least not that particular insurrection. Lines like, “Time to settle debts/We’re taking a pound of flesh,” certainly have an aspect of threat, never mind that they serve as the inspiration for the title, but the message, again, never comes through in favor of one side over the other so much as disaffected with a corrupted entirety. And fair enough. Twice through the chorus again, and “Burn it Down” jams out a solo en route to its bookending more subdued guitar, crying baby and evil cackle samples starting “Foaming at the Mouth” in beginning a sample onslaught — “Here comes the money!” from the beginning of “Dirty Money” makes a return — and the feeling of being overwhelmed is palpable.
Conspiracy theories, chemtrails, that crying baby and of course a riff-led groove all come to a finish just after two minutes in, and Pound of Flesh concludes with a sampling of the apex speech of Charlie Chaplin’s 1940 anti-fascist “talkie” film The Great Dictator, wrapping with the repositioned line that begins that famous monologue: “I’m sorry, but I don’t want to be an emperor. That’s not my business.” The message is clear and relevant and gives depth and context not only to the purposefully overwhelming barrage meant to represent the overwhelming barrage of noise one faces in any given day, but also to “Burn it Down,” to “Judgement Day,” “It Came From the Sky” and the rest of what surrounds. Borracho could hardly have picked a more suitable or relevant capstone for the album they made.
And what impresses about Pound of Flesh on the whole isn’t just that Fisher, Martin and Trubiano made it, but that they pulled it off while still holding to that central sans-pretense ethic. Remember, this is the band whose slogan has only ever been ‘Repetitive Heavy Grooves,’ and yet they dig deeper here to offer much more than that on every level, from shifts in structure and tempo to new arrangement elements. In the span of the last decade, all Borracho have ever done is exceed expectation. It is the manner in which they are most reliable, and on Pound of Flesh, they deliver once more.
Posted in Whathaveyou on June 28th, 2021 by JJ Koczan
I know, I know, a double-LP is all cool and stuff, and two vinyl versions and that’s pretty special. But a jewel case CD with a four-panel insert? That’s got me grinning like the Drake meme. My jam. And a jewel case feels like a novelty at this point, so yeah, I’m on board for that.
Aug. 6 is the release date for Borracho‘s fourth album, Pound of Flesh, and considering the fact that it marks a decade since their debut, you almost have to sit back and look at the career they’ve put together. Especially since they didn’t end up being the band they started as, losing their frontman after that first record, their accomplishments are all the more impressive. And you know what? They’ve earned everything they’ve gotten, working with labels like Ripple Music, Cursed Tongue and Kozmik Artifactz, shows at home and abroad, fest appearances, wide-ranging accolades and all of it. Solid heavy rock and roll band. I’ve heard the new record. It’s long, but they earn that too. It’s awesome, and it’s another step forward for them.
I guess what I’m saying is “fucking a, new Borracho.” I’m gonna try to get one of these dudes on board for a video interview before the record’s out too, and there’ll be a review and all that whatnot, so keep an eye out. We’ve got time.
Here’s preorder info:
BORRACHO – New LP Pound of Flesh available August 6. Pre-order NOW!
Our 4th record Pound of Flesh officially drops August 6th and is available for pre-order on CD, digital, and vinyl now on our Bandcamp page: https://borracho.bandcamp.com/
Nine new tracks running more than 50 minutes will take you on a heavy trip from beginning to end. Here’s the first glimpse at the cover art and packaging, all designed by TMD – AKA our very own Tim Martin.
CDs are presented in jewel cases with full color 4-panel insert. But the stars of the show are the two vinyl versions. Two limited edition gatefold 2LP versions are available – Black & Blue, and special edition Multicolor Splatterburst. Side 4 includes a custom etching capturing various elements of the album’s theme. It’s a package you don’t want to miss in your collection. Pre-order NOW!
Pound of Flesh arrives nearly five years after its predecessor Atacama, and just on time for the tenth anniversary of our debut album Splitting Sky. It has been a labor of love, being largely written over a three year period when the band was geographically separated, and mostly recorded ahead of the onset of a global pandemic. The events of the past 16 months delayed its completion and release even further. We couldn’t be happier to finally bring you this amazing package, presented by the always on-point Kozmik Artifactz.
NOTE: if you are located in Europe we highly recommend you place your pre-order directly with Kozmik Artifactz for faster and cheaper delivery.
As clarions go, the opening riff of “Sleepy Silver Door” is as much a call to the converted as it is a call to convert. The lead track of Dead Meadow‘s 2000 self-titled debut, released by Joe Lally of Fugazi‘s Tolotta Records, has become a staple of the then-Washington D.C./now-L.A. outfit’s live work, and it was apparently enough in their heads that it received a reprise on their fourth album, Feathers, in 2005. It is a landmark riff, languid in rhythm, fuzzed to the nines and in a matter of seconds, it tells you much of what you need to know about the band.
As the microgenre of stoner rock was beginning to shape itself in the wake of Sleep and Kyuss‘ demise, the advent of Queens of the Stone Age and rise of Nebula and Fu Manchu out west (let alone what was happening in Europe or South America at the time), Dead Meadow managed to outdo the vast majority of their West Coast counterparts in terms of crafting a sound that was both mellow and heavy, and with Jason Simon‘s floating voice over the proceedings, they were as much shoegaze as psychedelic rock, as much indie as stoner. They made Dead Meadow in their practice space, and for the sounds they were making, anywhere else wouldn’t have worked the same.
There are few who can roll a groove as they do, and “Sleepy Silver Door” demonstrates that in its first minute as it moves into that willfully repetitive note of the verse. There are twists and turns to be had, but that root is always there, and with Steve Kille‘s bass and Mark Laughlin‘s popping snare and dirty hi-hat, the jammy feel is resonant but still so righteously heavy as the track takes off into its solo — long, jammed, eventually falling apart because who cares anyway man. “Indian Bones” picks up at a more immediate run and answers some of the opener’s repetition, but is more active and freak-crashes in its second half for a minute before getting its head back together, a formative janga-janga riff that’s still mellow with the push behind it.
The beginning pair make up about 14 minutes of the album’s total 44-minute runtime, so a not insignificant portion — “Sleepy Silver Door” is 7:31, and the only longer track is side B’s “Beyond the Fields We Know,” at 9:31 — but the dreamy, drifting vibe of “Dragonfly” that follows is a pointed chill kept together by the drums, like the sunshiniest of grunge but distinct in its purpose from what the ’90s had on offer a few years before, even at its most psychedelic. The bass, the drums. It’s a heavy tune, and fades out on a march to “Lady,” which rounds out the record’s first half like the reason wah pedals were invented.
Seriously, it’s dizzying. Eventually the track evens out, such as it is, and shuffles a bit in its second half, but the earlier stretch still comes across like the bastard son “Electric Funeral” never knew it had. In comparison, “GreenSky GreenLake” is positively clear-eyed, opening with a stretch of quiet guitar before unveiling its Hendrix-at-wrong-(or-right?)-RPM central figure, pausing before the bass and drums enter, keeping an exploratory feel as it plays out in linear, instrumentalist fashion. I don’t know if we’re ending up underwater or out in space there — what planet that lake is on, etc. — but I remain ready to submit a resume to work for their tourism board.
On the sundry vinyl editions that have shown up over the years — Planaria Records in 2001, the band’s own Xemu Records in 2013 and 2015, and so on — “GreenSky GreenLake” opens the second side, and on whatever format, it’s all the more notable for leading into the utter hypnosis that is “Beyond the Fields We Know,” which even 21 years later feels like someone did to time what Mad Alchemy does to lightshows. Loose enough to make “Sleepy Silver Door” sound like punk rock. And they, they get it going with the tambourine and the push and all that, but by the time they’re five minutes in and you’re hanging out there with Kille‘s bassline for company before Simon‘s guitar comes back and you’re wondering like what the hell happened I thought we were cool, it’s Dead Meadow‘s go-wherever jam getting one over again, because where they’re headed is back to the verse — a masterful turn that contradicts earlier departures from structure and reinforces the craft underlying all of the album’s songwriting elements. Maybe there has been a plan all along.
Like the shorter pairing of “Dragonfly” and “Lady,” on side A, Dead Meadow rounds out with “At the Edge of the Wood” and “Rocky Mountain High,” the former three and a half minutes of unashamed acid folk, acoustic strum and voice put to tape with a spirit that, if it wasn’t done live, is as much of an approximation of same as one could ask it to be, and the latter just over four minutes of tambourine-laced wah victory lapping, pushing vocals below weightier fuzz and pitting roll against boogie until the wash of melodic tonality takes us all into the wormhole off to who knows where. Find me a more fitting end to this record, I dare you.
In the context of when it came out — now some 21 years ago — Dead Meadow‘s Dead Meadow offered something different from much of the heavy rock of its time, and it, as well as 2001’s Howls From the Hills and 2003’s Shivering King and Others are essential documents of stand-apart turn of the century heavy. The band of course continue to deliver. They’ve got a new release coming out through PostWax, and their latest album was 2018’s The Nothing They Need (review here), a win to be sure, even as Simon has split time with solo work and other projects like Old Mexico. With steady reissues along the way — CD and tape in addition the vinyl already noted — Dead Meadow remains that relevant clarion it started as being, and maybe it ultimately feels so timeless because it is.
As always, I hope you enjoy. Thanks for reading.
—
Rough week with the kid home from school and still healing in the leg culminated yesterday with me getting pissed off and throwing a Lightning McQueen toy. The Pecan was adamant that I didn’t put his shorts on — yet he won’t go nap without them — and mommy do it mommy do it and I’d said I was doing it and so I was on the hook and when I put them on him he scratched and hit and kicked and even bit me which he hadn’t done in a while and then when he ran over to The Patient Mrs. after and pulled his shorts back off, I just lost it. Threw the toy, scared the kid, got his shorts back on and sent him upstairs to nap where he was consoled by his mother for 40 minutes before being left to go to sleep under his blanket. The dynamic in this house sucks right now and I think we all know it.
He and The Patient Mrs. are going to Connecticut for tonight and maybe part of tomorrow. I think I’m staying home to try and catch my head. Honestly, I’m hoping for a carbon monoxide leak or something like that so I can maybe just kind of pass out on the couch and not wake up and everyone can move forward for the better. Probably with a new couch.
I’m doing my best and it’s just not good enough. Ever. For anyone. Oh, and then DYFS or whatever they’re called now came back to the house to close out the case they opened because it was his second fracture in so short a time and I had to cancel the Monster Magnet interview I’d slated because I didn’t know when the case worker was coming. She showed up later anyhow. What a fucking trench of an existence this is.
He’s home next week too then starts camp. I took a xanax this morning and hope to spend as much of today as possible in bed. Make myself a protein shake and try to chill the fuck out. He has a follow-up x-ray at 9:15 on the leg. Still limps a bit, but is out of the boot. We see the orthopedist on Monday. I don’t know anything.
Fuck it. He’s up so I’m out. New Gimme show today at 5. You’re not gonna listen. It’s okay, I get it. Don’t feel bad. The world is not short on internet radio. But I feel obliged to give a plug because the Gimme crew is very tolerant of me.
And thanks if you’ve bought merch. More coming.
Great and safe weekend. Drink water. Wear a helmet. All that shit. Next week, more.
Posted in Bootleg Theater on February 15th, 2021 by JJ Koczan
The collaborative debut from Myopic and At the Graves, titled A Cold Sweat of Quiet Dread, is out March 12 through Grimoire Records. And look, I get it. Maybe you didn’t catch Myopic‘s 2018 self-titled LP when it also came out on Grimoire. Maybe you’ve never heard any of the material that the Baltimore-based Ben Price (also Foehammer, among others) has released under the solo moniker of At the Graves. If you want to be honest about it, I hadn’t either until the six-song/40-minute A Cold Sweat of Quiet Dread came my way with its roiling and extreme take on American black metal, doom and atmospheric sludge.
Breaking evenly into two three-track sides, the record begins with “Through Veins of Shared Blood,” for which you can see a recording session video premiering below. All I can do is suggest you watch that video, because it will give a sense of the process of these two parties — Price with the Washington D.C. of Sean Simmons (vocals and guitar), Nick Leonard (bass and vocals) and Michael Brown (drums) — coming together to create a work that represents both sides. “Through Veins of Shared Blood” is the shortest track on side A, but it still represents some of the tortured aspects of the vocals in its interweaving howls, growls and wails and the angularity of riff that underlies its more ferocious swells. On the record, “Gold Sinews” and “Reeling Between” follow and both top seven minutes but offer striking differences throughout as the former launches with blastbeats and clean vocals and screams in call and response form, conjuring a metal that feels ancient as much as forward-thinking, while “Reeling Between” offers anOpeth-style melodic break in its midsection before renewing a massive, charred doom lurch in its final stretch. Oh and somehow it’s grunge too.
Side B mirrors the first three songs in structure: shorter track up first, two seven-plus-minute cuts thereafter. “Oppressive Ruminations” (4:04) is the briefest inclusion on A Cold Sweat of Quiet Dread and more definitive in its scorch, verses and choruses swapping in and out in a manner almost catchy in its own, punishing way. “Stray Parasite” veers toward Paradise Lost-esque doom in its second half, but the setup that gets there draws from progressive death and black metal in kind, and Myopic & At the Graves are never anyone more than what would seem to be themselves throughout. That triumph — and it is one, make no mistake — is somewhat ironically underscored in the brazenly melodic “Resonating Loss,” which likewise draws together metallic traditions extreme and not and forges a path of its own essentially by shaping them to its will. They end melodic, and that feels telling.
Of what? I don’t know. Hard to guess whether A Cold Sweat of Quiet Dread is a pandemic-born one-shot deal or if it’ll be an ongoing thing. I hope the latter, and I’m almost sorry to say it, but the three-piece-plus-one-two-outfits-collaborating thing? Yeah, you guys might just be a new four-piece band. Certainly throughout A Cold Sweat of Quiet Dread, the melding of the two sides is complete to such a degree — the album does not feel disjointed as it might with disparate parties saying, “okay now let’s do this” with some out-of-place change or progression — that to seek out a name for this unit beyond Myopic & At the Graves seems appropriate if they’re going to continue. Considering the scope and cohesion in these tracks, it’s a thread well worth pursuing.
So maybe you’ve heard these two bands before, maybe you haven’t. If not, this is something new anyway, so don’t feel intimidated or weirded out by the idea or the (very cool) anatomical freneticism of the album art. Just go in with an open mind and you’ll be fine.
Enjoy:
Myopic & At the Graves, “Through Veins of Shared Blood” recording session video premiere
Studio session video shot/edited by Ben Price for ‘Through Veins of Shared Blood’ by Myopic & At The Graves during the recording of ‘A Cold Sweat of Quiet Dread’ available March 12th, 2021 on Grimoire Records. Pre-order here:https://grimoirerecords.bandcamp.com/album/a-cold-sweat-of-quiet-dread
“A Cold Sweat of Quiet Dread” was recorded, mixed and mastered by Noel Mueller in the Summer of 2020. Additional engineering by Nick Leonard, Ben Price and Sean Simmons. Art by Austyn Sullivan.
MYOPIC: Sean Simmons – vocals, guitar Nick Leonard – bass, vocals Michael Brown – drums
